Performance Co-Pilot
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) is a free, open-source toolkit and framework for system performance monitoring and analysis.
What Performance Co-Pilot is
Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) is a free, open-source toolkit and framework for system performance monitoring and analysis. It gathers metrics from systems and combines data across hosts and operating systems. Agents cover areas such as CPU, disk, memory, networking, filesystems, databases, web servers, mail systems and cluster infrastructure. PCP supports real-time and historical analysis, including comparisons across hosts and time intervals to examine trends and unusual patterns.
Its client-server architecture allows several clients to monitor one host or one client to monitor multiple hosts for centralized monitoring. APIs, libraries and a plugin framework let applications and other sources contribute or use performance data. Project integrations include a Grafana plugin, Ansible roles, Java instrumentation and a PDF graph converter. October 2026 release notes describe OpenTelemetry export and a REST API that returns OpenTelemetry JSON or OpenMetrics text. Recent releases support optional encrypted connections, user authentication and access restrictions by host, user or group. PCP is self-hosted. Linux distributions including RHEL, Debian, Fedora, SUSE and Ubuntu include it, and a macOS DMG installer is available. Windows and Solaris have no downloads and require building from source.
Good
- Analyzes both real-time and historical metrics.
- Combines data from multiple hosts and operating systems.
- Includes a Grafana plugin and Ansible roles.
- Supports optional encrypted connections and access restrictions.
- Free and open source.
Watch out
- Self-hosted deployment is required.
- Windows and Solaris require building from source.
- No free trial is listed.
Who it suits
PCP is particularly suited to centralized monitoring of distributed processing, clusters, web server farms and large systems. Some features can also help investigate difficult performance problems on smaller systems.
Verdict
PCP provides broad metric collection and centralized analysis for distributed systems, with integrations and optional security controls. It is a fit to consider if self-hosting and building from source on Windows or Solaris are acceptable.
Plans and prices
From Performance Co-Pilot's own pricing page, checked 9 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Performance Co-Pilot | Free | Open-source toolkit; no paid plans or pricing stated on the pages reviewed |
The facts
Each one read from Performance Co-Pilot's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Analysis
- It supports real-time and historical performance analysis, including comparing hosts and time intervals to identify trends and abnormal patterns.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Architecture
- Its client-server architecture lets multiple clients monitor one host and one client monitor multiple hosts for centralized distributed monitoring.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Collection
- It collects performance metrics from systems and collates metrics from multiple hosts and operating systems.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Export
- The October 2026 release notes describe OpenTelemetry export and a REST API that can return OpenTelemetry JSON or OpenMetrics text.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- PCP provides APIs, libraries, and a plugin framework for collecting and using performance data from applications and other sources.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- The project provides a Grafana plugin, Ansible roles, Java instrumentation, and a PDF graph converter.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The FAQ says PCP is particularly suited to centralized monitoring of distributed processing, clusters, web server farms, and large systems, while some features also help with difficult performance problems on smaller systems.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Licensing
- PCP libraries use GNU LGPL version 2.1 and the other components use GNU GPL version 2 or later.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Metrics
- Its agents collect data across areas including CPU, disk, memory, networking, filesystems, databases, web servers, mail systems, and cluster infrastructure.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- PCP is a system performance analysis toolkit and framework for system-level performance monitoring and management.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Security
- Recent releases support optional encrypted secure connections with user authentication and access restrictions based on hosts, users, or groups.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Support
- The project directs users to GitHub issue trackers, mailing lists, Slack, and the #pcp Libera Chat IRC channel for community help.checked 9 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Linux support
- The download page says PCP is included in popular distributions including RHEL, Debian, Fedora, SUSE, and Ubuntu.checked 9 Oct 2026
- macOS support
- The download page offers a macOS DMG installer.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Platform limits
- The download page says Windows and Solaris have no downloads and require building from source.checked 9 Oct 2026
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